Our new adventure - Diabetes

Our adventure begins with Nate about 3 weeks ago, I guess. Nate came down with a pretty strong fever as kids do from time to time. We didn't think too much of it until he started to say that his ear hurt. We took him to the doctor, but there was no infection, so we just figured he would have to wait it out. As time went by, Nate developed a couple of strange symptoms. One was a canker sore that developed in his mouth and was extremely painful for him. The other, that developed a few days later on Halloween, was that he started to go to the bathroom much more frequently.

This was the symptom that concerned us. I've known a few people that developed diabetes and this was the common issue. They were extremely thirsty, and had to go to the bathroom very frequently. We researched a bit on the internet and there were suggestions of urinary tract infections, or anxiety affecting bladder habits, and we hoped that was what was happening. The odd thing was, even though Nate was going to the bathroom up to 3 times an hour at the worst point, it wasn't just little squirts, it was a significant amount of urine.

It finally got to the point where it was waking him up at night and was not going away, so Angie brought Nate into the doctor Thursday morning. They had him pee in a cup, which he thought was about the coolest thing ever. They tested and found large amounts of glucose in his urine and decided to test his blood. His glucose level was over 700. For a normal kid, it should be around 100, so this was pretty severe. Angie asked if maybe this could have something to do with him eating a lot of Halloween candy, and they said it didn't. He had diabetes.

That's a hard thing to hear. We both know that there are many people who have this disease, and that although there is no cure, it can be managed. We have seen and experienced far worse things in our life, and Nate hadn't been damaged by the symptoms at all, so there wasn't much to be worried about in the grand scheme. But to have your perfect little 3 year old boy suddenly develop a broken body that has to be managed by pokes and shots for the rest of his life is just sad. You just wish happiness and a carefree life for your little kids, and to have to worry about this just isn't fair.

So we immediately went up to Primary Childrens Medical Center for a few days of treatment and education on managing this disease. Most of the time was spent learning. We had to have probably close to 12 hours of training over the three days. We spent it learning about diet management, carbohydrate counting, blood glucose levels, hyper and hypoglycemia treatments, etc. And then we had to learn how to poke holes in our kid to get blood samples, and then learn how to give him shots. That is not fun no matter how old your kid is, but with a toddler, it's rough. He's young enough not to understand any of it, and old enough to really make you feel bad (both emotionally and physically, as evidenced by the scratch on Angie's chin).

We finished all of our education and got the dosing and testing all down and came home last night. The girls have been spending time at grandma and grandpa's house while we get this all figured out. It was a bit intimidating to have to do this on our own without supervision, but they taught us well. Nate thinks it all stinks, but he's getting a bit better with it already. He still hates that he has to have "pokey time," but he recovers immediately and is his happy little self once it's done. We have to still stress out about making him eat everything we treated him for, as if he doesn't, his blood sugar levels could drop dangerously low. Anyone who knows him knows he eats like a bird, and guessing what he's actually going to get down is a crap shoot at best. Past that, I think we'll do just fine.

So Nate's current routine is this:

Wake up, get a finger poke to test blood glucose.
Get his once a day basal insulin shot that lasts 24 hours.
Figure out what he is going to eat for breakfast, then figure the carb count to get the insulin dosage set for breakfast, including any correction for blood glucose levels above 200.
Give him his shot.
Play games to get him to eat all of his breakfast.
At 10, he gets a mid morning snack, we try to give him something under 15g of carbs so that he doesn't need a shot of insulin. If it's more than that, he gets a shot.
At noon, another finger poke for blood glucose, figure out his carbs for lunch, and give another insulin shot.
At 3pm, afternoon snack, same routine as the morning snack.
At dinner time, another finger poke, carb count, insulin shot, and circus to get him to eat everything we gave him insulin for.
At about 7:30pm, he can have a late snack, same routine as the others, but this one isn't really necessary if he isn't hungry.
At bedtime, another finger poke and glucose test. If he's above 100, but below 200, no need for anything else, he can go to bed. If he's above 200, he gets an insulin shot to compensate.
Next day, it starts all over again.

Again, there are much worse things in life. After time, this will all be second nature, and we'll be like the thousands of people who deal with this every day. For now, it's kind of stressful, but we're getting better, and so is Nate.

We'd like to thank everyone who helped us out during this last weekend. The thoughts and prayers were felt and appreciated. Those who took the girls for us, thank you. Those who watched over our home while we were away unexpectedly, thank you. It's nice to have such supportive and loving family and friends to lean on when you hit a bump in the road.

Here are some random pictures of the last few days:

Here's Nate eating his metered meal at the hospital:



Nate's "computer" he got for being brave.



Nate talking to his sisters on the phone.



Nate getting a visit from Grandpa White. He knows all about this hospital stuff.



The instructions for insulin dosages that we need to go over 4 times a day.



Nate's prize for doing so well once we got home. It was rough for him to come home and realize that everything didn't stay at the hospital. He also has a watch and a compass that someone gave him at the hospital on his beltloop.



Greg

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